Finding humor in the struggles of being a mom and a woman.

Beautiful View, all about the (5-year-old) eye of the beholder.

As a mommy I am usually walking around with busy life blinders on, which sometimes causes me to miss the beauty in daily life. this fact is exactly why I planned on taking full advantage of the Enjoy the View Challenge. I was being dared to find the most beautiful view in driving distance and share it with my clan of little people. Easy right?

I identified my view of beauty. Then I told my kiddos we were going for an adventure. This is where my plan of beautiful viewing went to shit. It’s literally rained every day since I told them about this adventure. It’s rained so much we had to cancel our family pictures. It’s rained so much that I now know where all our unknown umbrellas are. It’s rained so much that my son actually wore a rain coat to camp today. It’s rained so much that we have actually had flood warnings. At one point we made it out of the house in effort to get to our beautiful destination but the second we walked out of the house, clouds rolled over and it began to sprinkle. I was ticked and my clan members were ready to overthrow their leader and my broken promises of adventure.

Back into the house we went where I let me kids play with sandbox toys and white rice. Thanks Pinterest. As I watched my minions squeal as white grains floated through the air like snowflakes, I started to really analyze my answer to this challenge, and what I came to realize is that I had answered the dare WRONG. It was never the actual place that I found beautiful, it was the people who were there that had made it so beautiful. Because when it comes down to it, the most beautiful view for me is one in which all my children are smiling and laughing before me. What did it matter if there were blue skies or brilliant flowers or lush green grass?? There could be gray skies, mosquitos and mud, but as long as I was able to watch my children play and smile in all their innocence I would be sharing in the most beautiful view to me. Looks like I needed some rain and clouds to show me the answer to this challenge that was in front of me the whole entire time … my children. My children are the most beautiful view in the whole entire world, no matter the backdrop.

As I think about what beautiful really means I wonder if the definition I have as a 31-year-old adult would play to my little ones. I think back to my childhood and the most beautiful view for me was pulling into my grandparent’s driveway and seeing their home. It was so beautiful because of all the life experiences that unfolded there for me but also I always knew how much love and joy I would be experiencing once inside no matter the day of the year or type of visit it was. So I decided to find out what beautiful really meant to my kids (well at least the one that is able to verbalize at the present moment, my five-year-old Braxton).

What is my most beautiful outfit?Your (Chicago) Bears football shirt. (Mind you this shirt belonged to my dad in 1986 and literally has holes in it to the point that it is almost see through).

What is the most beautiful animal?Polar bear.

What season is the most beautiful? Winter!!! Because it’s snowing out and I always want it to snow!

Do you feel beautiful?YES! How beautiful? Really beautiful.

*According to my interview, I think I hit this challenge out of the park. #ETHANproject

Be sure to check in at the #ETHANproject Facebook Group and see what the other bloggers are doing. Once you are there feel free to share your experience when diving into THE VIEW challenge, I dare you!

I love his answer about most beautiful animal! Polar bears are pretty spectacular! What would be interesting is to ask him these questions each year as part of an end of year interview to watch how it changes over time.